has to say about chuck hagel's experiences, the state of the gop and a whole lot more. he's going to be here in a few questions. >>> first today's trivia question. as many of you know by tradition at least one cabinet secretary skips the state of the union as a security precaution. the chosen member spends the speech at an undisclosed location with presidential security. last night it was steven chu. in the '80s the white house began publishing the identity of the designated survivor. since 1984 since this was made public how many cabinet officials have been asked to skip the state of the union more than once? tweet me the answer@chuckto and @dailyrundown. the answer coming up. we'll be right back. >>> time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. jo anne brewer and christy sterileling of dallas created cute homemade decorations for their kids' lockers. when others said they wanted them too, the partners created locker looks. their products hang on retail racks around the country. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. ♪ alright, let's go. ♪ sh

a great day. happy valentine's day! >>> the posturing around chuck hagel's nomination for a defense secretary, well, it's getting murkier by the minute. are republicans gearing up to deny an up or down vote for the pentagon kick before the weekend? >>> president obama's road show policy push hits atlanta today and we'll take a deep dive into the options and odds of the president having to fall back on executive actions, because his policies won't go anywhere in congress. >>> and the republican ruckus over karl rove's conservative counter-strategy is reaching a bit of a fever pitch. but is the core of this fight really about the messengers or the message itself? >> good morning from washington and happy valentine's day. it's thursday, february 14th, 2013. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. it may be valentine's day, but not a lot of love for chuck hagel. next week a nato meeting of defense ministers is scheduled in brussels. but given the way chuck hagel's nomination is going, it's possible the u.s. may not have a new defens

for an up or down vote in the senate. but it now appears chuck hagel will get that vote when senators return. at least two top republicans say they will stop efforts to stall his confirmation. that filibuster came a day after hagel was approved by the armed services by a party-line vote. one of his most vocal opponents says while he doesn't believe hagel is qualified, he won't hold up the process. >> i thought we had an agreement to wait a week so the remaining questions would be answered, but i understand the white house wanted a vote. they got a vote. we will have a vote when we get back. i'm confident that senator hagel will probably have the votes necessary to be confirmed as the secretary of defense. >> the gop it says blocked hagel's nomination in an effort to further examine his record and views on israel and iran. senate majority leader harry reid hopes to bring a final vote to the floor when congress goes back in session next monday. >>> residents in coastal new england are cleaning up after yet another blast of winter weather following the big blizzard last weekend. parts of

committee will start to debate and then vote on chuck hagel's nomination as the next defense secretary. this is a first vote. we have a live report from capitol hill and we could see fireworks yet again surrounding chuck hagel. >>> plus, police make an arrest in the murder of the chicago teenager who performed at the inauguration. this arrest happening just before her parents are set to attend the state of the union as guests of the first lady. behold water so blue it merges with the sky above. behold natural beauty above the sea, and far below. behold smiles so wide they stretch across the face of an entire nation. behold...the islands of the bahamas. with command strips from 3m. designed to stick and eliminate odors anywhere. like this overflowing trashcan. to test it, we brought in the scott family. so what do you smell? beach house and you're looking out over the ocean. some place like, uh, hawaii in like a flower field. take your blindfolds off. aw man! [ screams ] [ laughs ] that smells good. i wouldn't even just put it in the trash, i'd put it in every room. stick it to eliminat

amendment rights. >> filibustering chuck hagel. the pope resigns. what lies a check for the catholic church? >> the church is a 200-plus- year-old institution that has not changed very much, and society is leaving the church way behind. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> the president says the economy's improving, but we have to do better. he says republicans don't have a clue, and that austerity is not the answer. he says it is time to educate our children, subsidize new forms of energy, and rebuild our infrastructure. president obama's for the state of the yen, the first of his new term, and how do we pay the bill? >> nothing i am proposing should increase the deficit by a single dime. >> the president offered more of the same, higher taxes and more stimulus spending. >> the president wants congress to, with $40 billion to improve infrastructure, wants to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour, wants a new energy bill similar to cap-and-trade, wants preschool for every 4-year-old in the nation, tax reform, gun control, and citizenship for undocumente

of the very first second-term nominations that president obama announced. chuck hagel ended up not being in brussels today. he has not become the new defense secretary yet because republicans in the senate have filibustered his nomination. a cabinet nomination has never, ever in the history of the united states been filibustered before. but these republicans in this congress and our time decided that they would do this unprecedented thing to chuck hagel. one of the major items on next week's news calendar is that the republicans are expected to finally relent and allow chuck hagel to be confirmed. but jane mayer published something at the "new yorker" today that made headlines everywhere today because she turned up the way republicans have been operating in washington, at the time they have been trying to stop him. to be clear, even with the unprecedented filibuster, everybody knows that chuck hagel is going to be confirmed as defense secretary. democrats have a majority in the senate. hagel has the support of every single democrat in the senate and he has the support of some repub

gwen: the ping-pong economy, the new immigration fight and chuck hagel's not so good day. tonight on "washington week." wall street and the housing sector are rebounding but job growth is stagnant, consumer confidence shaky. what's up with the economy? in washington, bipartisanship roars back. >> for the first time ever, there's more political risk in opposing immigration reform than in supporting it. >> the issue of immigration is not a simple one but i think we have the opportunity to do it right and -- gwen: will immigration reform finally happen? and chuck hague 's rocky confirmation hearing. >> please answer the question. were you correct or incorrect when you said that the surge would be the most dangerous foreign policy blunder since vietnam? yes or no? >> my reference to -- >> are you going to answer the question senator hagel? the question ask were you right or wrong? gwen: the president's pentagon choice finds hit -- his worst enemies in his own party. covering the week, david wessel of "the wall street journal." vaughn johnson of national joran. kirn tumulty of the nati

of mccarthyism and this weird unconnectedness attacking chuck hagel, for example, because no one will give us info or anyone info about the benghazi situation even though hagel wasn't even in the government when benghazi happened. sick stuff. and it seems to be growing in inverse proportion to obama's popularity. the better he looks the worse these characters inhofe, cruz, mccain and lindsey graham are determined to look. did you notice the smile on john boehner's face sitting up there behind the president during the state of the union? if you did, you're imagining things. so afraid of the hard hating right of republicans these days of every stripe even boehner's scared to death of looking like he might like something barack obama had so say. to do that is to risk political death in these days. let's go at it. our guests are joy reid of the grio and michael steele, former chafer of the republican national committee. both are msnbc analysts and good ones. let's take a look at this. is this delay on the hagel vote about playing for time hoping new information comes out about them? "the

threatened to derail and deny his nomination of chuck hagel. we're looking live at the senate where moments from now they're going to take a vote that's likely to delay the confirmation of a much-needed secretary of defense for this country, a country, by the way, that's still at war, and we'll bring you that live. but first, we take you on an exclusive tour of wayne lapierre's new york. that's right. this is how the nra's chief executive describes the city of new york today in an opinion piece published on the daily caller beb site. after hurricane sandy, he writes, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists see as their utopia. looters ran wild in south brooklyn, and if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark or you might not get home at all. yes. while nobody in this city recognizes that bogus, racist, and entirely mythical description of new york during the hurricane, mr. lapierre says ordinary americans are now at the mercy of everything from marauding latino gangs to urban thugs and drug dealers and woe to him who cannot defend hims

of their former pierce but not so for chuck hagel. >> i'm on the record on many issues but no one individual vote, no one individual quote, no one individual statement defines me. my believes or my record. my overall world view has never changed. gwen: but by the end of an eight-hour hearing he's been called a flip-flopper, untrustworthy and lacking in judgment. it's generally now greed he did not do so well. what remains unclear is what happened, doyle? >> what happened? well, gwen, as you said, some former members of congress do brilliantly in front of committees. gwen: john kerry. >> and leon panetta? they schmooze and charm their colleagues and then there's chuck hagel. that's not who he is. he started out -- as he said, no single quote. well, he had a lot of quotes that were going to be a problem. he had a whole lot of relationships with republicans that were going to be a problem. but he's also kind of a prickly guy and the first rule of a confirmation hearing is be agreeblet. don't be controversial or prickly and that was kind of an unnatural act for him. you could almost s

. >>> getting personal on capitol hill, the fight over chuck hagel. we'll explain. >>> what happened? theories on the meteorite that exploded over russia, and another incident you may not have heard about. >>> a new twist today in the cruise ship nightmare. welcome to "weekends with alex wit." what's happening out there. new word from president obama, taking on the gop on the right. and the president arrived in florida last night for the weekend, but not before his weekend address. time to finish the job by cutting the deficit $4 billion. >> you can make bigger cuts to education and job training and social security benefits. senior citizens and working families to bear the burden of deficit reduction, while the wealthiest are asked to do nothing more. >> that won't work, we can't cut our way to prosperity. >> republicans aren't holding back, criticizing the president over the upcoming threat of sequestration, if nothing is done to avoid it, massive funding cuts to the federal government will be triggered march 1st. >> in his state of the union address, these cuts were a really bad id

battle over chuck hagel's nomination. let's listen to senator reid reacting to the republicans holding up hagel's nomination. >> but it's shocking that my republican colleagues would leave the nation without a fully empowered secretary of defense. for the sake of our national security, it's time to put aside this political theater. and that's what it is. it's tragic that they've decided to filibuster this qualified nominee. it is really unfortunate. >> can you give us the status of this whole thing and explain where we are in the process? >> as we know, the republicans did not allow a vote to happen. they invoke cloture which means it's on hold. what's happened now is the congress on a break for a week, chuck hagel's got to wait around. and there's a concern, i think, at the white house and other areas that something could come up. that's what people are looking for. the white house is expressing confidence. president obama said he's confident this will happen. and other administration officials have put the word out that they are confident. but whether it happens or not after congress ge

republicans blocked a vote on chuck hagel just because they can. >> well, it's valentine's day. love is not in the air. >> it's shocking. >> not a lot of love for chuck hagel. >> to filibuster of the senator's confirmation is unprecedented. >> unprecedented filibuster. >> the debate on chuck hagel is is not over. >> all roads lead to benghazi. >> i'm going to fight zblooes willing to fight to the very end. >> i'm going to hit you and keep hitting you. absolutely. >> who blinks first? >> nobody is quite certain. >> the filibuster of senator hagel's confirmation is unpress dented. >> not a filibuster. >> filibustered one of the president's nominees. >> who's going to filibuster? >> is that what they want? >> not a filibuster. >> the signal we're sending to the world is america can't get its act together. >> the sequester is there because the president insisted it be there. >> the president's sequester. >> republican dna is all over it. >> the sequester was the president's idea. >> the blame game just doesn't work. >> senate colleagues do nothing. democrats must begin to do their work. >>

matthews picks things up right now. >>> the war on chuck hagel. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. the breaking news. senate republicans have successfully blocked a vote on chuck hagel. republicans have thrown out so many different reasons for this it's hard to know why they're opposing the man becoming secretary of defense. it's hard to keep up with all their arguments. it's because hagel hasn't accounted for every penny he's made and every single word of every single speech he's ever given. it's because of what he said about israel and iran, maybe, but it's also because of the white house's response to benghazi, perhaps, something obviously, but that was nothing to do with chuck hagel who wasn't in the government at that time. well, today republican threats to take the unprecedented step of blocking a presidential cabinet appointment came to fruition, if you will. democrats moved forward with a procedural vote to end debate and pave the way for a final up and down vote. then it failed. it failed to get the

yesterday explaining why exactly he is participating in filibustering chuck hagel's nomination to be secretary of defense. he says chuck hagel is too darn disagreeable. so says john mccain. quote, in a heated dispute over immigration law overhaul, mccain screamed f you at john cornyn who had been raising concerns about the legislation. this is chicken -- stuff, mccain snapped at cornyn. are you calling me stupid chuck grassley once inquired over the fate of the vietnam mi as? no, replied senator mccain. i'm calling you an -- jerk. at a gop meeting last fall, mccain erupted out of the blue at the respected budget chairman pete domenici, quote, only an -- would put together a budget like this. he stood up and gave a dignified restrained speech over all his years in the senate through all the heated debates no one had ever called him that. another man might have taken a moment to check his temper, but mccain went on, i wouldn't call you that unless you really were that. >> you can disagree, but if you're disagreeable, then people don't forget that. >> ah, the arbiter of disagreeable. it

very troubled by it, it being chuck hagel's imaginary connection to the organization, on a bright dot server, and apparently in rand paul's mind. that is who gets to vote to confirm the defense secretary, very troubled by this terrorist organization that he heard about in a chat room somewhere. don't feel so bad, rush, every country's got them, we just give them more power than most countries do. republicans filibustered chuck hagel's nomination yesterday, that has never happened before, no cabinet nominee has ever been blocked by a filibuster, we have been hit by meteors, but this was never done, now the senate is in recess, the confirmation will probably happen in a week and a half, unless of course we have to hear rand paul chair hearings on the birth certificate of the president, or something more compelling than us needing a defense secretary, than having 66,000 americans deployed in war. that does it for us. we'll see you back here monday, monday night for the premier of the documentary, "hubris, the selling of the iraq war". that does it for us. brand-new documentary, "hubris:s

. this is a fox news alert. chuck hagel has been stopped by the republicans and we have that upcoming report tonight. and first the passengers on board the disabled carnival triumph cruise ship are making approach and could make landfall this hour. the cruise ship went dark on sunday after a fire broke out in the engine room leaving 4,000 passengers on board stranded and without any power. now, the conditions on the ship have been haroing to say the least with the passengers reporting toilets are overflowing and food is scarce and sewage is everywhere. and joining us jonathan serrie, jonathan. >> reporter: sean, the excitement is building among the family and friends gathered here waiting for this ship to come in. latest estimates coming in between 9:30 and half past midnight central time. a lot of wild cards because this is a ship that's running on limited power. we understand that the winchs aren't working and the docking is going to take time and disemba disembarkation. one functioning elevator and most the passengers are going to have to carry their own luggage down several flight

falls. >> good evening, and happy mardi gras. >> the war against chuck hagel, let's play "hardball." >> good evening, let me start tonight with this, at least for now, defense secretary. republicans have thrown out so many different reasons. it's hard to keep them all straight. it's because hagel hasn't accounted for every single penny he's made and it's because of what he had to say about israel and iran. but it's also because of the white house's response to benghazi, something that has nothing do with chuck hagel, who wasn't even in the government at the time. today, the unprecedented step came to a head. that failed to get the 60 votes needed. that mob at the gate headed over >> what are republicans really trying to do? nbc's kelly o'donnell is at the capital tonight. let me just tell you this, i'm going to ask you, why are they doing this? why are they holding up a cabinet appointment? >> for some of them, it is about chuck hagel wanting to know more, who were not a part of committee. they just all received. they make it very clear. it's not personal, they say. it is a tool wi

on two fronts. the battle over the nomination of chuck hagel for defense secretary. it's been delayed another week, that vote. the $85 billion of automatic spending cuts which is scheduled to take effect in two weeks time. we have it covered this morning. we start with a view from the white house. in washington the job of the white house chief of staff is known as the most powerful post in town. there is a new man occupying that seat of power and he is here with us this morning on "meet the press." his first appearance. who is he? how did he get here? denis mcdonough grew up one of 11 kids in a small town. he was a high school football star. he worked in the house for congressman lee hamilton and in the senate for majority leader tom daschle and later for barack obama. when the freshman senator decided to make a run for the white house in 2008 he tapped mcdonough to be his foreign policy adviser for the campaign and once president, obama appointed him. the president noted when he announced him as his pick, mcdonough has been involved in every major foreign policy decision including th

doesn't derail it but it's a difficult day for chuck hagel. >> kristin welker, are you hearing any reaction from the white house? >> reporter: i can tell you they're working on a statement, martin, right now. they do still continue to stand by their belief that he will ultimately be confirmed. to your point this is a blow to the white house. the president's initial pick for secretary of defense, susan rice, was derailed by the republicans, so this certainly is unwelcome news. >> kristin welker and kelly o'donnell, thank you so much. thank you for watching. chris matthews picks things up right now. >>> the war on chuck hagel. let's play "hardball." ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. the breaking news. senate republicans have successfully blocked a vote on chuck hagel. republicans have thrown out so many different reasons for this it's hard to know why they're opposing the man becoming secretary of defense. it's hard to keep up with all their arguments. it's because hagel hasn't accounted for every penny he's made and every single

jan schakowsky and jared bernstein, thank you so much for joining us. >>> coming up, the chuck hagel vote and proof that politics in washington these days are nothing more than petty and personal. stay with us. >> no need to panic. it's not like we're four days away from everything we know as it's american way of life being destroyed, which is why i have in no way spent the last eight hours having sex with literally everything that moved. [ male announcer ] this is the opposite of subliminal advertising... there's no subtext... just tacos. yeah, it's our job to make you want it. but honestly... it's not that hard. old el paso. when you gotta have mexican. investors could lose tens of thousands of dollars on their 401(k) to hidden fees. is that what you're looking for, like a hidden fee in your giant mom bag? maybe i have them... oh that's right i don't because i rolled my account over to e-trade where... woah. okay... they don't have hidden fees... hey fern. the junk drawer? why would they... is that my gerbil? you said he moved to a tiny farm. that's it, i'm running away. no, no you can'

when the president's pick to head the pentagon, former republican senator chuck hagel, came under fire from members of his own party during a very contentious confirmation hearing. >> name one person in your opinion who's intim nated by the israeli lobby in the united states senate. >> are we right or wrong? that's a pretty straightforward question. >> senator hagel, please answer the question i asked. today, do you think unilateral sanctions would be a bad idea? >> all this raising questions about how effective chuck hagel will be if confirmed as secretary of defense. earlier this weekend, i sat down for a rare joint interview with the top military leadership issue the outgoing secretary of defense leon panetta and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general martin dempsey. >>> secretary panetta, welcome back to "meet the press." general dempsey, welcome. let me start with the man that is poised to take your place. he underwent on thursday a pretty tough round of questioning. he seemed to struggle with a lot of the answers. of course this is chuck hagel, the former republican se

headlines in the papers today, the reviews being in on chuck hagel's performance on the hill. skprael taking it on the nose from his former colleagues. want to remind everybody how that hearing went. take a look. >> the surge would be the most dangerous foreign policy blunter in this country since vietnam. were you correct or incorrect? yes or no? >> my reference to the -- >> senator hagel -- >> well, if you would like me to explain, why -- >> well, i actually would like an answer. yes or no. >> well, i'm not going to give you a yes or no. i think it's far more complicated than that. >> name one person in your opinion who is intimidated by the israeli lobby in the united states senate. >> well, first -- >> name one. >> i don't know. >> well, why would you say it? >> i didn't have in mind a specific person. >> perry, republicans in what you're hearing in washington, d.c. proud of the performance they demonstrated yesterday? >> this is a very unusual hearing. usually when an ex senator comes to be nominated for something, his former colleagues treat him nicely. hillary clinton had that, john k

. partisanship is also, jeff, locking them into a fight over senator hagel, chuck hagel, the president's nominee for the secretary of defense. the republicans have effectively filibustered him. what is going on here? >> what is really going to is a relitigation of what happens when a member of a party speaks out against his own party. of course, we're talking about the iraq war. chuck hagel, former republican senator from nebraska, was asking the sharpest, hardest questions about the iraq war, throughout its duration and he, classed with his old friend, john mccain, and he's paying a price. at the end of the day, he'll probably be confirmed but he has to wait another -- until the week after next to when the senators return to washington to see if he can be confirmed so i think it's an embarrassment to the president. that's what they were trying to do in some case. but enough republicans have said that they're going to vote for him ultimately but you have to wonder, is this really going to weaken senator hagel as a possible defense secretary. all the defense ministers from aro